The Phenomenon: the challenges of adapting a book to a podcast
This article, written by Morgan Hines, marketing and communications manager at Podible, originally appeared on Discover Pods on May 7, 2018.
Jared J. Smith has worn many hats while working in the television industry but has turned his attention to a different sector of the entertainment more recently.
Now, Smith is working on a new project: The Phenomenon, a podcast about a supernatural force that threatens the extinction of mankind.
“For the majority of my career I’ve worked in television and film, video stuff, editing, producing directing all kinds of things,” said Smith. “Traditionally I have been a more visual storyteller but recently gotten more into audio storytelling, something i’ve always been interested in.”
Season one of The Phenomenon (which consisted of eight episodes) has been released, and he and The Phenomenon team, which is made up of three producers and 40 voice actors, are working on season two right now. They plan on releasing season two sometime in the fall.
The idea to do an audio drama came to Smith a few years back.
“I thought it’d be cool to create an audio drama like this… like old school radio play,” he said.
So after reading a book called The Phenomenon by R.K. Katic, Smith decided the nature of the story and the creatures presented in the story would fit well in an audio format. He said it was the perfect match.
“We got in touch with author of book, and we worked it out,” said Smith.
Smith has done a good amount of writing over the course of his career but adaptations are new to him and audio is even newer.
Adapting a book to a podcast is a very different process than adapting a book to television. Smith explained that rewriting the book to fit an audio format forces the team to take into consideration many different factors including: dialogue, sound design, the way you are conveying information to your audience, everything you need to make them think or feel.
“You’re limited in tools and when approaching writing it’s important to be cognisant of that,” said Smith. “The hardest part is that you don’t have anything visual to lean on and our society and entertainment world is visual and people are used to taking their entertainment and storytelling in visually.”
The Phenomenon team is one season in now though and it seems they’ve found their rhythm. Smith said that they’re having a really good time working on the show. The best part, he said, has been collaborating with everyone else as they work on the show.
“My favorite part is probably working with the actors, you know when you kind of are able to get bunch of really talented people to be part of your project and you’re working with them to figure out a scene and figure out the best approach,” said Smith. “It’s fun to work with the really talented actors to see what they bring to a scene. Actors will bring a different perspective to a scene than you expect, it’s not necessarily what you heard in your head but if you’re honest and open with it it might be better.”
The collaboration has paid off. Smith said that they’ve received a very positive response from fans– particularly how vocal their audience has been about what they think of the show.
“We’ve been really, really blown away by the reception that the show has gotten by podcast fans and audio drama fans,” he said. “People being like really excited about it and really vocal about how much they’re enjoying it and that kind of reaction is really exciting to hear when you’re creating stuff like this.”
The project is independent, they haven’t completed any marketing initiatives they have depended solely on word of mouth.
“There hasn’t been a big push by us by ads or anything like that put it out there and the fact that people are listening to it and the listener base keeps growing tells us that people are talking about it and sharing it and listening,” said Smith. “And that makes us feel amazing.”
You can find The Phenomenon here. And be careful– while listening, “Do not go outside, Do not look at the sky. Do not make noise.”